Far East natives worry about toxic spill

Sikachi-Alyan, Russia  Yevgenia Osadchaya is beside herself with worry, wondering how her family will survive when the toxic slick flowing from China pollutes the Amur River that provides the livelihood for her family and her native Nanai people.

The native peoples of Russia's Far East, many of whom rely on the Amur for their food and income, are among those most endangered by the imminent arrival of 100 tons of benzene released into a tributary upriver after a deadly Chinese chemical plant explosion Nov. 13.

The spill prompted Chinese authorities to shut down the water supply for Harbin, a northeast city of 3.8 million people, for five days. A second city - Jiamusi, which has about 500,000 people - also shut down a water plant on the Songhua River, fearing contamination, officials said Saturday.

Russian authorities expect the slick to cross the border Dec. 10 or 11, and three days later reach the regional capital, Khabarovsk. Restrictions on eating Amur fish could last a year or even several, as toxins linger in the winter ice and riverbed, experts say.

Burt Herman/AP Photo

A native Nanai boy carries water jugs Saturday from his home in Sikachi-Alyan, Russia. The native peoples of Russia's Far East are among the most endangered by the imminent arrival of a toxic slick released by an industrial accident in China.

The native people "live from fish. But trading in fish will likely be banned," said Natalya Zimina, spokeswoman for the Khabarovsk regional government.

She said authorities would strive to inform the villagers that eating the affected fish is even worse than drinking the water.

Nearly 11,000 Nanai people live in the Khabarovsk region, comprising the largest native group here, according to the 2002 Russian census. Other minorities include the Evenki with 4,500 people, Ulchi at 2,700 and Nivchi at 2,500.

Many of the Nanai, who retain their own language, are fishermen whose eastern Siberian ancestors once made clothes from scaly fish skins and who still make shoes from fish. Samples of the skins are shown at the village museum in Sikachi-Alyan, some 37 miles downriver from Khabarovsk.

Nina Druzhinina, head of the village administration, said residents already have been warned not to drink Amur water or eat fish.

The spill is just the latest example of civilization impinging on traditional customs here, she said.

"It's hard to have a traditional life when you have legislation," she said, naming restrictions such as fishing and hunting quotas.

The Nanai are already also coping with years of industrial pollution by chemicals such as phenol, which affects Amur fish in the winter, giving it a chemical smell.

At least this village of 314 Nanai residents has another way besides fish to support itself.

Stone carvings dating from 14,000 years ago are a steady draw for thousands of visitors a year. Residents make small fur-lined talismans with traditional symbols for health and long life, or small figures in native dress, to sell to tourists for $1.75 each.

Still, Osadchaya worried that even that small trade could be devastated by the chemical spill. To help make ends meet and supplement a pension she says is not enough to support her family, her daughter makes the souvenirs, while her sons go fishing.

"If the spill arrives, then no one will come here," she said.

Osadchaya said she used to work here at a workshop that produced traditional Nanai slippers, but that was shuttered in 1991 as the Soviet Union collapsed.

"It's getting worse and worse," she said. "The fish are destroyed, now the water is destroyed."